Rhea County man faces 25 counts of Child Rape

DAYTON, Tennessee (WDEF) – A Rhea County grand jury has indicted Jerry Lee Defore with 25 counts of child rape.

Back in March detectives with the Rhea County Sheriff’s Office started looking into a child rape case. Investigator Rocky Potter says after a mother learned about the possible abuse of her kids, she looked into it further.

“That mother started calling up family and friends of children of the same age or approximate age that had contact with Mr. Defore. And other young girls that were under the age of 12 that she too had been to his home numerous times that she had been sexually assaulted by him,” Potter said.

Defore was indicted by a grand jury on Monday. He faces 25 counts of child rape, five for each victim. He is also charged with ten counts of incest and one count of felony evading arrest.

Potter says in this case, two of the victims are now in their twenties.

“They actually changed the law in June of 2006 where any child sex crime committed with a child that was 12 and younger then they have 25 years by the time they turned 18 if the offense happened after 2006. Both of these girls fit under that statue,” he said.

Potter says while it’s rare for someone to have this many charges against them, it’s common for child rape victims to know the suspect.

“Of the hundreds of cases that I have done of child abuse they have all been intimate family members or close personal friends of the family. I have never worked a child abuse sex crime where the perpetrator was a stranger,” Potter said.

Defore is due in court on Friday.